The USGS has provided modeling support to the Impact Area Groundwater Study Program (IAGWSP) of the National Guard Bureau (NGB) and Army Environmental Center (AEC) at Camp Edwards since 1997. From 1997 to 2000, the USGS assisted the NGB by providing numerical simulations of advective flow at the site to support field activities such as subsurface drilling and soil and water sampling. Camp Edwards is located near the top of the water-table mound on western Cape Cod, where hydraulic gradients are small and groundwater flows radially outward from the top of the mound; this hydrologic setting presents challenges for the simulation of advective flow at the site. Since 2000, in cooperation with the AEC, the USGS has developed and used regional and subregional numerical models to address specific technical issues of relevance to the IAGWSP. Technical issues addressed include evaluation of the effects of time-varying recharge on groundwater-flow patterns at the site and the implementation of new methods to quantify uncertainties associated with prediction of advective transport.

Advective flow paths calculated by the 2000 regional model from two monitoring wells within the Central Impact Area, (A)  MW44, and (B) MW59, and the approximate positions of nearby wells contaminated with Royal Dutch Explosive (RDX), western Cape Cod,Massachusetts. The flow paths are estimates of the ultimate future discharge location of contaminants. Grids appear irregular because orthogonal grids are projected onto curved particle tracks.

For More Information on Simulation of Groundwater Flow by the USGS at Camp Edwards:

USGS Water-Resources Investigations Report 03-4053

Simulation of advective flow under steady-state and transient recharge conditions, Camp Edwards, Massachusetts Military Reservation, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

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